New Satch and Josh Smith albums, Frusciante's new pedalboard
Plus Cory Wong's "Power Station"
This week’s issue of Six String Sunday is jam packed with links. New music to talk about, great lessons, hacks to make you a better player, and more. I hope you enjoy reading/watching as much as I did! Let’s get right into it.
You HAVE To See John Frusciante’s New Pedalboard - The big news in the last couple of weeks is that RHCP and Frusciante are back in action with a new album. Justin Jeske shows us all the pedals of John’s new touring board. While a couple of pedals are a mystery, most of them are pedals that are more widely available.
Cory Wong // “Power Station” - Cory Wong’s new song “Power Station” is a tune that even Prince would be proud of. Plus the lightning emanating from Cory’s guitar when playing a lead? Electrifying. 😄
Mark Lettieri and Andy Wood Live! - After a little bit of Q&A, Andy Wood shared some footage of his recent gig with Snarky Puppy’s Mark Lettieri. Stay to the end of the vid where Mark gives us a fun lick to learn.
The ‘MISTAKE’ most players make? | Friday Fretworks - Never thought I’d watch 11 or so minutes about the pinky finger being used, but Chris Buck’s recent video was interesting enough to make me do just that!
The Guitar Journey: A Conversation With Dream Theater Keyboardist Jordan Rudess - Is it fair that Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess can play keyboards AND guitar so well? I think not. In all fairness, one of my favorite musicians, and I always like seeing what new technologies he’s trying (Jordan has had a cool history with making apps). It was fun to see him here, sitting down from Strandberg, while playing some cool riffs. Did you see that lick at the beginning where he’s playing both at once?
Should You Buy a Guitar Plugin? 🤔 - The simple answer is yes! Keep reading for Joe Satriani’s thoughts on this as well. The thing here is that plugins have come such a long way, that within a mix I’m betting that you couldn’t tell whether the amp was real or not. When you’re done with that vid, check out his new one on making boring licks more exciting - it was one of my favorites of the week.
“Fat Hair” from the new album Bird of Passage - Josh Smith is back! His new album is called ‘Bird of Passage’, and it’s filled with all sorts of great jazzy, blues playing. Check out his first video from the album, for the song “Fat Hair”.
7 Famous Riffs That Make You a Better Guitarist | Spark MINI - OK lets get it out of the way that this video is an ad for the Spark Mini. Aside from that, it offers up one of my favorite principles of teaching - learning guitar through playing riffs/licks/songs. What’s your favorite riff on this list, and what riff would you add has taught you a lot?
Learning Guitar? Don’t Waste Your Time On THIS - Rhett Shull has been making some really excellent videos lately. In his latest he talks about things you shouldn’t waste your time on when learning guitar.
You DON’T NEED Music Theory To Have Amazing Ears - Just Try This! - Levi Clay recently posted a lesson that focuses on a practice routine for combining hands and ears in a really intuitive way.
ENHANCE Your Solos Using Octaves - I was recently teaching a student how fun octaves can be. Not only for their sound, but as a device to find notes all over the neck. Turns out, Marty Schwartz made a video about the same sort of thing!
Fleetwood Mac’s IMPOSSIBLE picking song - Lindsey Buckingham is a really great guitarist, and one of his shining moments has to be “Never Going Back Again” on Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumors’ album. Paul Davids breaks down why this song’s picking pattern (really Travis picking) might trip you up.
The Tuesday Tidbit - 3nps Pentatonics - One of my favorite ways to open up the range of the pentatonic boxes, is to combine two at once. That’s why I really enjoyed this video from MasterTheGuitar. He shows us a really fun run that combines two of the most common boxes.
Joe Satriani “The Elephants of Mars” (Official Music Video) - Joe Satriani’s new album just came out Friday, and it’s great! Check out this wild video for the album’s title track, “The Elephants of Mars”.
“Every guitar sound is DI’d: it’s blown my mind!” Joe Satriani on why plugins are the future for him | Guitar.com | All Things Guitar - Speaking of Satch, I loved this interview with him talking about guitars being DI’d for the new album. It reminds me of his past work on ‘Engines of Creation’. If you were ever on the fence about using a guitar plugin, this album might change your mind.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading Six String Sunday!
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